Research Proposal Project - Focus & Rationale

Audience:

I work for an association called APDE that manages seven private schools in Guatemala City. I want to share my investigation with the board of directors and principals of all seven schools. At the end of each year all the schools have a two week period of professional development, I would like to take advantage of this occasion to present my research results to all the elementary school teachers as well.

Sources:

I first got inspired to do this project by learning about PBS Kids’ raising readers campaign that focuses on building reading skills using media across all platforms to close the literacy achievement gap.

ISTE’s Journal of Research on Technology Education (JRTE) has a few interesting articles about this:

• ·        Commercial Software Programs Approved for Teaching Reading and Writing in the Primary Grades: Another Sobering Reality. JRTE, 2009; 42(2): 197-216
• ·         Digital Games in Education: The Designs of Games-Based Learning Environments. JRTE, 2007; 40(1): 23-38
• ·         Interactive CD-ROM Storybooks and Young Readers’ Reading Comprehension. JRTE, 2001; 33(4): 374-384

I’ve also found a book on Multimedia and Literacy Development by Adriana G. Bus and Susan B. Neuman. One of the chapters is online: “Cognitive processes during reading: implications for the use of multimedia to foster reading comprehension”. Unfortunately, I don’t live in the US and ordering the book would take too long and be most expensive.

The Reading Online Journal from the International Reading Association has all sorts of articles about using technology to enhance reading instruction.

Description:

Does the integration of interactive multimedia technologies in lower elementary grades increase students’ motivation and skills to read?

Each day of the week all of the students at the all-girls K-12 school where I work, have a one hour reading or studying period, it consists mostly of reading silently by themselves. For my lower elementary kids, it can be difficult and boring at times. I often hear teachers say that they have a hard time keeping the students motivated to read and that they end up doing something else instead, like coloring or drawing on their notebooks. I believe that acquiring good reading skills is very important for a countries development. Guatemala has a low literacy rate and unlike other societies very few people are known to be “book lovers”. Some of it has to do with our socioeconomic problems, buying books can be expensive! But with all the online resources accessible at present, not having money will no longer be an excuse. Since I started working in education this has been a concern of mine. With the help of my sister, we design a children’s poetry page: www.mundoemilia.com, knowing little about all the research available on how to enhance reading instruction.

I would like to work on a theoretical/empirical research study on how integrating multimedia technologies can motivate and develop young children’s reading skills like fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. It would be a longitudinal study with repeated measures. I’m still defining the variables and the methods to get the data I need. On a small scale, I would be very happy if I could just improve the quality and results of my school’s reading period, and find out that there’s a positive relationship between technology and reading. On a larger scale, I have found that there’s a lot of interest in research focused on the impact of applying technology in helping children learn to read, so I would like to contribute my findings with the world. There is still much to be explored by schools, technology developers and researchers.

“Technology can help make a good reading program more effective, but its value depends upon the quality of the overall reading program and the thoughtful implementation of technology to enhance reading instruction.” INDUS - Training and Research Institute.

WPP - Final Overview

This will be my last blog post for CEP-812. Another MAET course concluded! During the course I've been working on my Wicked Problem Project.

The first part consisted in identifying a need or opportunity where technology could make a real impact. I divided the problem in three parts that are connected to the same solution:

Part 1: We’ve had Google Apps in our school for three years now but my teachers still don’t use many of the tools or features that would make their work a lot easier.

Part 2: As Technology Coordinator I have to make sure that all the technological resources available in the school are being used effectively. I wanted to design a system that would give me better control of all our devices and software.

Part 3: I feel that there isn’t enough communication between different subject areas or grade levels of what interesting or creative activities are being done using technology.

What solution did I find for all the parts of my problem?

Incorporate most of the tools that Google Apps has to offer in creating a site where teachers could request assistance and resources and at the same time they could share how their activity went with other members of the staff, I would not only make part of my job a lot easier but also build a functional demonstration of how using Google Apps could be very helpful for other educational tasks and promote their use in the classroom.

To make sure that my solution had the necessary elements to become a good learning resource for my teachers I analyzed it using the TPACK model.

I began with Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK). In this solution, the same tools that I want my teachers to learn are the ones that they will be using on a daily basis for sharing their edtech experiences and scheduling the use of different technology resources. TPK in this case would help them identify similarities and differences of doing tasks with or without Google Apps. I think it will also be a good engagement strategy since they are using the same thing that they are learning.

For TCK, Technological Content Knowledge, the content in this case is Google Apps. You might say that the whole site is a non-linguistic representation of the content, since it's a physical or digital model of the different tools. This will help create a mental picture of the different functionalities.

Finally for Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK), this solution has a very practical or kinesthetic approach to learning the content. The teachers will first have the experience of using Google Apps as part of the school's needs to keep track of technology integration. Later, they can appropriate the same tools for their own needs inside the classroom.

Watch the next video to learn more about my WP Project:

GLP - Finished Video

Yesterday, my team mate Alex Gonzalez and I finished our 10 minute instructional video for our Group Leadership Project. It was a good team work experience. I think we both contributed a lot of good ideas and were dedicated to deliver a good final product. It’s even sad about it being over and not knowing if we'll get the chance to work together again. Watch the video and tell us what you think:


Google Apps Scripts PD Presentation from Alex Gonzalez on Vimeo.


What tool did we use to deliver the tutorial? Why?

The great thing about technology is that it no longer matters were you are. For this project we used a great variety of tools to communicate and collaborate. By now, you’ve probably noticed that we’re both very much into Google Apps, so we used some of them for this project. Gmail was an essential part of our communication; it was nice to know that we were just an email or a chat away. We also shared a Google document and created a Google site for our script and storyboard. Collaborating with these apps was really easy! It allowed us to focus more on the content and creation process of the project and not so much in the technology.

We also used videoconferencing tools like Skype and Vyew. I’ve never used Vyew before and it does have some nice features, but Skype has become one of my favorite ways to communicate with others. I could hear Alex a lot clearer and being able to see his screen during the editing process of the video pretty much felt like we were working together in the same room. What can I say, Skype rocks!

For the actual production of the video, we also used a mix of tools. From the commonly known MS Power Point program for visual aids, to screen capturing programs like Screenflow and Jing. Not to mention other not so very essential tools like Photoshop and Soundbooth for editing photos and recording audio.

There are very few projects that I’ve done that required such a variety of tools. It was nice learning experience.

What did I learn during the development process of the final product?

Aside from combining all the tools that I mentioned earlier, I also learned that a well-planned storyboard makes a great difference if you’re creating a tutorial of this kind. It allowed us to organize ourselves better and work our parts at our own pace and time. At the end, putting it all together wasn’t hard at all because we had followed our plan.

Of course, I also learned that you have to be flexible and some things may change when you construct the video. It’s like when you see some clothes that you like in a store, but later change your mind when you try them on. We made some last minute changes, some parts from the script or storyboard didn’t quite fit anymore or we added other elements to make our message clearer.

What would I do differently if I had to develop a similar product again?

The topic of our video reminded me of old times, when I worked as a web developer. I think the video is a nice overview of what Google Apps Script is, but there is still so much more to be said. I would have liked to make more specific short videos of the things we mention. This tool has so much potential, for those that are willing to take the time to program a little, there are so many possibilities for what you can do. Our video can give you a very broad idea of the scripting feature but it won’t actually teach you how to really use it.